Sears
Reviews and Complaints

Original report
Do not use sears home improvement co. For any installations that are crucial to your home or comfort. They do not have emergency weekend telephone numbers and use local independent contractors. That being said I will tell my story: I just bought a house and was in the process of updating a lot of thing's including installing a central air system... House had none, but had a forced hot air furnace with duct work in place. I interviewed 3 contractor companies for installing a central air system to my forced hot air furnace. Sears was the most competitive so I signed with them.

Next step, they sent in a local contractor (Not a sears employee) to assess the job. He said that it wouldn't work and I would be unhappy with the results because the cold air wouldn't be blown up to the bedrooms (Custom split level home with 4 floors instead of the usual 3).

Sears sent the sales people back in. He tested my system and said that I had a 2 speed blower on the furnace and that it should work. I demanded that the local contractor come back to assure me as to what the salesman said was true. Contractor tested the 2 speed blower in my system and said that it still wouldn’t work. I said what about a booster motor that could be put on the 2 vents that were the problem (One vent already had one that didn't work-thus the recommendation on my part). He said that would work so we scheduled the job to start.
Installation took the better part of a day. I added a dehumidifier which was installed and they also installed a separate condensation evaporator unit.

In comes the electrician to run wiring to the unit and the compressor from the fuse box. All is well and working well on thursday in time for my company from south carolina to visit during the memorial day weekend. Thursday night sleeping was terrible... It was hot. I checked the unit and it wasn't working and the breaker in the fuse box was tripped. I called sears on friday morning and they sent the installation contractor back on friday morning. He checked out the system and said that everything was working well-off he goes. Friday late morning, my wife and I and the guests went visiting (Left the air on) and came back about 6:30 pm the house was a sauna because we closed all of the windows. Tried every number I was given for sears home improvement, left messages everywhere but could not get to speak with one person, even tried all numbers again on saturday... Nothing. My wife was so frustrated she left nasty messages on all the phone number sears gave us... Nothing. We were stuck with a central air system that didn’t work on the hottest weekend this year. Even with alll the windows open it still was 85 degrees in the house.

Memorial weekend was ruined due to the heat because sears has no emergency weekend telephone numbers. Adding insult to injury: contractor came on tuesday afternoon (After the holiday weekend was over) and replaced the condensation evaporator unit which he thought was the problem. Unit worked fine for about 2 hours and then no cold air again. My wife went down to do laundry and found the basement floor full of water (Lot of damage to miscellaneous items stored because we we’re still moving in and the inside of the house was being painted). It seems that the condensation evaporator unit was leaking water all over the basement, after the clean up and throwing out of the damaged stuff my wife put a pail underneath the ce unit.

Contractor is back (Scratching his head) everything checks out. Long story longer, electrician was supposed to run a hardwired line to the ce unit but instead plugged it into one of the receptacles in the basement. This receptacle worked when you turned on the basement light but didn't work when it was turned off... How stupid is that not to check everything. This whole process was a comedy of errors and omissions. Fact still remains, sears home improvement company is not good and if you need them over a weekend forget it... Don't give them the job.

Update 1: sears social media department (Yes they have a department that monitor's on line complaints... Hmmm... Why do they need one) contacted me because of my many online complaints against them. They offered me a $100.00 sears gift card to appease me... I guess they're hurting financially. I laughed and refused the card.

Update 2: permits were secured from the town. Building inspection passed; plumbing inspection passed; electrical inspection failed, not for 1 violation but 3. It's been a day and a half since I called with the information about failing the electrical inspection and I still have not heard from sears or the electrician who is local.

Your crazy if you use sears home improvement for anything.

I bought an expensive dishwasher from Sears a year ago and I have had nothing but trouble. I should have known, when it took a month from purchase to installation. Thank goodness I bought the extended warranty since my dishwasher has been broken down 4 times in one year and now it is out of the intial warranty! It takes 3 weeks to get a service appointment and twice, they have not shown up for my inital appointment. This time, I have taken 3 days off work (for 3 appointments that the contractor either didn't show up or they were canceled and rescheduled at the last minute) and my dishwasher has been un-useable for over a month and my appointment is still in 2 weeks! I call everyday to see if there has been a cancelation - with no luck. You would think I would take priority if I have had several appointments that have been broken by no fault of my own. They have ordered a part and the Tech hasn't even been out yet! I will NEVER buy anything from SEARS again!

A True Story About Sears Credit

My wife has a Sears credit card. Well, she has had it a long time, but she never used
it until recently.

Here’s the story.
A member of my family needed a window air conditioner, just a small one for one room. There
was one on sale at Sears online for $160.49, so my wife ordered it. The delivery was to the Griffin “Hometown Store” owned by Jim Easterling.
Surprisingly, the next day I found an Email that the unit was in the store to be picked up. Thus,
I went into the store with the Email in hand.

The sales person stated that the one air conditioner that was in their stock was damaged. There were no others like it available. He also offered another unit. I declined, asked for a cancellation and a credit on my wife’s account. I then ordered one from Amazon which was delivered promptly by FedEx.

Later in the week we discovered that no credit had been made. A visit and a call to the store
did no good in removing the charges for something never obtained. In a later conversation
I was advised by our local Sears to try the Sears Credit department, which I did and with no success. This included calls and a long letter to dispute the charge with several attachments on our attempts for resolution. I at first understood the problem was in the online system and not the dealer, and of course this advice came from the dealer!

This week my wife received a letter from Sears Credit stating the issue of was closed.
They stated the store refused to issue credit, plus a warning that non-payment meant a report to credit agencies. The latter included a listing of the three agencies and addresses.

The real “dig” was that if I wanted credit given, Sears Credit stated I should return the item ordered.

How do I return something I never received?

That’s a challenge!

We have a high credit rating!

Thus, I am sure that because of a management error or maybe a local store screw-up,
we will pay for the item. I investigated and found small claims court cost is around $90 and then there is
no guarantee of action. I thought of an attorney, and I have a good one. He does no
pro bono even for us!

Folks like my wife and me who are retired and on limited incomes have our own contacts. It is probable that if this had been a regular Sears and not a locally owned one such a issue would not have happened.

So, since Paul Revere is dead, passing on this message-

CAVEAT EMPTOR-Let the buyer beware.

So as it is written, so shall we do.

[1] Only corporation in Canada keeping customers on hold for an hour or more on a routine basis [Proof: call [protected] choosing option of service] [2] Cancelling service appointments with informing customers regularly [Proof: ask its service centre staff about statistics of "no shows" - even Sears Canada Inc. itself cannot deny this]

I have a very bad experience with Sears Home Repair Services from Southern California District in Ontario. The more I complained, the worse services I received. Not only it is difficult to get an appointment that fit our schedule, their technicians are so incompetent. Technicians did not order all the parts need to do the repair. Moreover, one of the technician came without the tool to do the job! Please do not buy Sears Warranty Service.

Sears store in Nelson has a very poor customer service. The owner and the staff do not have a helpful attitude. It is more like "whatever, I do not care". We asked the owner of the store (manager) for an advertised product to be ordered (as they didn't have it in store) and he said he will place the order tomorrow, a s he is too busy that day. We assumed that this means that we will get the advertised in the flyer price, but we will wrong. Next day, the owner said that the price is higher as the sale is over. It was very suprising to hear this, but it did happen. Since this incident we have decided never to shop in this store and tell as many people as possible this story. It is simple lack of respect for customers, and their hard earned money. Shopping in Castlegar now instead.

So for those who have read my complaint on Sears Home Central we have the following with regards to the sub-contractors they use.

1st Giant Heating out of bridgewater mass., is someone to avoid. their work is shoddy, without question below average and there is a good chance you will have call backs and damages. They had to return mutliple times to evaluate the vibration of the newly installed furnace. On the 2nd trip they simply lied about it but on the third trip they acknowledged that they had lifted the pipe which was not rattling against the floor, sheetrock or both. They would go on to say that the electrician that was noted on my first item evidently no longer works for sears or they have not seen them.

However, they went on to try and bubblegum the vibration rather than simply fix it. The 2nd item is the thermostat. While they installed the correct one they simple screwed it into the sheetrock. When I observed this i indicated it appears rather loose, yes? Well usually we hit a 2x4 at which point I say, " ahh I don't think so".. Maybe you should use the sinkers and reinstall.

Through-out their initial install they did nothing but complain of how little they earn from Sears in doing this work! They complained about other subs and issues related to working with Sears.

They damage things after installation and try to walkaway from their responsibility and are not someone I can recommend. For that matter perhaps I would advise to stay away from Sears as their track record from my viewpoint is not a good one.

Windows ordered 3/11/11. It is now 7/1/11 and 6 of 8 windows are partially installed and/or boarded up holes in my home, old windows on my property, new incorrectly fitting windows have been sitting in my living room since April 2011, major water leaks from incompletely installed windows, etc. Please feel free to view photos at the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150229236448876.315914.591003875&l=12504f54d0

My wife and I purchased a Proform 390 treadmill from Sears in late February 2011. She began having problems with the treadmill, speeding up randomly, which above all else is unsafe. By the time I contacted Proform the 90 day warranty had expired even though there is a 5 year warranty on the motor (which I feel is part of the problem). The people at Proform had me recalibrate the machine and then had me remove the motor cover and reset a reed control, (which was something a technician should be doing, but I am pretty handy so I agreed to do it. After recalibrating it once more and realizing it was not working properly the woman on the phone told me the machine needed a new controller. I was told by Proform that I would have to call Sears for that. I spent the next hour and a half on the phone speaking with a total of 5 people who gave the royal runaround. Finally I spoke to a Supervisor named Monique and she was absolutely useless. I explained to here that several other people had told me they would cover the part but not the labor. I asked if they would send me the part and I will put it in myself because they wanted to charge me $100 to fix a $400 machine that was less than 4 months old. This is the second time I have had problems with Sears in as many purchases and I will never purchase anything else from them. I am concerned that my wife will be injured using this fairly new treadmill, but Sears just doesn't seem to care. Monique told me she was only authorized to give me a discount on the labor although she never made that offer. Sears and Proform will never again see my business.

Recieved a phone call around 6pm tues june 29. I was told I have an out standing dept from 1996 but mickey was not able to tell me if it was a credit card or a purchase. The dept is 1272.35

I applied online for a Fulltime position. I arrived early for my interview. They seemed to be dissatisfied with this . The manger introduced himself and said that I was early and would have to wait. This was fine because I was. A young lady called me in never told me her name or position. The interview was horrible. She asked nothing about my sales experience or anything. I respectfully complimented her and she rolled her eyes.Instead of being respectful and confident. I have over 15years management experience and I believe they sent out a CSR to interview me due to lack of being organized. She told me within less than a minute that they did not hire FULLTIME that they only hired PART TIME? I would have never applied for a part time position . I could not believe that my app was not taken more seriously and the fact that they did not try to sell themselves as a company or anything . I was more of pls sit down what hours are you looking for and we only hire part time .OMG! She saw my eye brows raise and said well...should I go on or is this interview over. Wow!(OVER!) I can not imagine what customer service is like there . I guess they want to keep their own job security... by running out the advancer.

Sears Home Improvement scheduled an all day appointment 8-5, to service my HVAC. The technician did not show up. When I called to inquire about the technician, I was told they do not service my area or this part of the country for that matter. I scheduled the appointment on June 9 for the service call for June 23, the company issued a memo on June 14 that they no longer had a technician in this area or this part of the country any longer. NO ONE CALLED TO CANCEL THE APPOINTMENT. I lost a days wage! Do they care? Absolutely not. I will never shop at Sears or any of their affiliates ever again.

In February of 2011, we purchased an elliptical trainer from Sears. My husband and I (well, my husband more than me) put it together. I immediately started using it and used it 4-5 times per week for approximately a month and a half. The last time I used it was on a Thursday (in April of 2011), and it worked fine. When I went to use it the following Sunday (in April of 2011), it was completely locked up. Luckily (or so I thought), I had purchased the master protection agreement. I obtained the necessary information and called Sears within 2 days to schedule a repair appointment. Approximately 10 days later, a repair person showed up to fix the elliptical, only to tell us that parts needed to be ordered for it. He ordered the parts, and we were forced to reschedule our repair appointment.

Approximately 10 days to 2 weeks later, the repair person again showed up to fix our elliptical only to discover the parts that Sears shipped were the wrong ones. We were again forced to reschedule our service appointment. This time, the repair person ordered 3 different parts in the hopes Sears would ship the correct part to fix the machine. Our repair appointment grew closer and we still hadn't received all of the parts; only I didn't know this. I called Sears the day before our appointment and the customer service rep assured me we still had a repair appointment scheduled for the following day. I had to work, so my mother stayed at our house the next morning waiting on the repair tech. After about 3 hours, he hadn't showed up, so I called Sears again. This rep told me that our appointment had been cancelled becaused we hadn't received all of the necessary parts for the repair (two parts were on backorder and wouldn't ship for another week). No one at Sears informed me that our appointment had been cancelled, so I wasted my mother's time. We were again forced to reschedule our repair appointment - 2 more weeks to wait. Now, it appears all of the parts have shipped to our house and our appointment is tomorrow. It is now JUNE 23. I guess it remains to be seen whether the parts we received are the right one, and whether the machine will actually be fixed tomorrow, but I still have hope.

Bottom line is that our machine has been broken for longer than not. I will NEVER again purchase ANYTHING (appliance, fitness equipment or otherwise) from Sears. Buyer beware. The master protection agreement is a JOKE!

Because I maintain a household with 3 adult renters, my need for appliances becomes critical because failures affect 4 individuals at once. Getting a 3rd renter necessitated a small refrigerator purchase, then the washer went out. I attempted to buy the frigerator online from the Sears Outlet website but my order was hampered when the online purchase was canceled. After receiving no order confirmations (via email) after 10 or 15 mins, I started to panic. I checked my bank and verified a funds hold, for the purchase amount, was indeed in place. Later (while searching for a washer) I got a phone call stating my refrigerator order was cancelled because that particular item had already been sold. "They thought they had the item but didn't." Huh!?! How does Sears Outlet sell something that has already been sold!?! Aren't inventories updated at point of purchase? If not, then why not! By direct register sale or by the sales person, online - At the The Time of Purchase? aaugh . . . Anyways, because of the "canceled" status of my 1st purchase, I thought (mistakenly) my funds would be released soon and to proceed with my 2nd purchase, the washer. 1.5hrs later, with the 2nd purchase completed, I still have no release of funds from the 1st purchase). Next day, today! Funds from 1st order still being held. Order history verifies 2nd purchase has completed but now, too is cancelled. A call to cust svcs 877#, where I had to "insist" on speaking to a supervisor because the initial female rep got out of line. He advised me he could not provide a "Release of Funds" ltr to my bank to preempt the estimated 2 week hold on my funds. All of this for trying to purchase of an item "That Wasn't Even There!" Hhmmm, makes me wonder if this doesn'tborder on the fringes of some sort of crime. And to think, I used to love my purchase experiences with Sears Outlet, (of which I have made a few & recommended a few more!).
Next Step - a written letter to corp.
This experience practically guarentees that Sears Outlet will no longer be an option for this household. Nevertheless, I wanna thank Sears Outlet . . . for treating me like a valued customer. . . taking my money, giving me nothing in return, not the item I ordered, not a letter to release funds, not a refund, not even a credit towards another purchase. thank you . . .

F1 code like a lot of people. Model #110.[protected]. I just got off the phone with Sears and they said I was not included in any recall and would have to pay over $250.00 to fix this issue. Sears has a recall on this issue, but my serial number is not included. I cannot believe that my issue is any different from everyone else's. I would like to know why some get fixed and others do not, as this issue is the same across the board. By the looks of all I have read, Sears is selective about the machines the will fix and screw the rest. I do not think this issue will go away because Sears sold so many of these units. I know I paid close to $2, 000.00 for the pair and now it looks like I will have to replace them. I am just not that confident that Sears will take care of everyone with this problem. I have also read that after the control board has been replaced, the F1 error begins again after a short while. If this has happened to you, please respond. Also let me know if there is a class action suit for this. If there isn't, should we get one started?
Thanks!

Facts
1. I bought a CD player (which I tried to return as it was broken), via SEARS, with updates from SEARS in my email, and with the attached response to “Refunds” via the SEARS WEBSITE/Store.
2. My wife and 82 year old Mother In Law (I’m disabled, on SS) brought it to our local SEARS Store, Capitola, CA. who had them go back and forth between Sales, PICKUP, etc and finally said “no”, as a third party, unbeknownst to me, was involved. To me, it doesn’t matter if there is a third or fourth or fifth middleman, MY Business was with SEARS. SEARS is the one who should STAND BEHIND THE PRODUCTS sold under YOUR NAME, SEARS. I went to the SEARS website, Ordered through the SEARS website, and got a Conformation and Shipping Status email, FROM SEARS. Now you give me a cute “Refund Decline” piece of paper with a 1-800 line to call. YOUR employees, MANAGER, should be leading the way to correct your problem, and not hoping I’ll give up after dealing with electronic answering machines.
3. Period.
I want my money returned and I want SEARS to pick up this broken CD Player I had ordered from SEARS. I should NOT be asked to PAY for mailing as it was PHYSICALLY brought back into your SEARS store already.
No wonder my Country is going downhill….this is what a company, that used to be an American Icon, does to its customers these days…

I went into the sears auto center at columbus, ms. yesterday fri. 17 th to purchase a air compresser. After asking the sales person a few questions I knew right away he had know clue about the product. I pick a compressor after some thought and went to pay. I wanted to us use my rewards points. After about 15 or more min. I was told I could not use the rewards because I didnt have a sears card. I was told I should have gotten a Card when I purchased my lawn mower some two months before. so I go back to the main store and there I was told that sears did not issue cards anymore and that I would have to get my pin # from my email. So I go home and get the pin # from my email and return to the store today the 18th. I get the compressor and take it to the check out counter and tell the assoc# 531939 that I want to use my rewards points. When he told me the price I knew he had know idea about rewards points. I had given him my pin# for my rewards when I told him I wanted to use my points. After 20 min with the help of another assoc. I finally got the compressor. The other assoc. whos # I did not get was flirting and making remarks to my lady friend . She did not appreciate what he said nor did I. He said I bet u get spoiled on ur birthday. He also said to her as we were leaving for her not to spoil me to much which is none of his business. He came to the counter as we were checking out and talked to her most of the time as I making the purchase. She was standing right beside me so I had no problem hearing the conversation. The assoc. that was doing the flirting was working fri. but I did not get his assoc no. as I said. I dont think u will have any trouble finding out who he was as there was only two of them working. Im sure there story will be different. Yes u may call me if u would like or email me.

Recieved a new CC that is through CitiBank.
Registered via phone. Then wen on-line to update stuff, and it wants my SSN & DOB on a .com site.
No way will I do that, and they have no way to complain to them unless I do register (meaning giving them this info).
Bah Humbug.
Called the number on the CC and got "...that is the procedure..."

Sears had lost me as a customer and cc holder.

I hope the following can help prevent at least one person from ever purchasing anything, especially furniture from Sears Canada.

We purchased a number of Natuzzi leather furniture items to furnish our basement. The problems started with delivery - almost a week late. Beyond that, the delivery people would not move the furniture into my basement even though we paid for delivery so I had to enlist my own help to get the furniture out of the hallway of the main floor and into the basement.

It wasn't too long before the leather started to separate from the foot-rest when the recliner was extended on 2/3 chairs and the sofa. I took it upon myself to just fix it... pulled out my staple gun and problem solved. The real problem started a month or so ago and the hardware for the recliner in the sofa is broken leaving the sofa back always in a reclined position. This furniture gets used only every couple weeks or so whenever we watch movies and I would think that a sofa that is only two years old with minimal use would last longer... especially given the cost.

I submitted a request to Sears online to have someone come out and look at the problem and fix it. I was told there is nothing Sears can do because it was no longer under warranty. Well guess how long the warranty was expired before I reported the problem... yep... 1 WEEK!

Again, I complained about how ridiculous it was that they would not stand behind a very expensive product that was only a week beyond warranty. I am told there is nothing they can do and that they have to follow their procedures and policies.

If a company is not willing to look at least a little outside the box and stand behind the product they sell then they should not be in business. The service has been pathetic and rude and this is a huge slap in the face considering the dollars that were spent there only a couple years ago. I will never purchase a single item from Sears and I will do my best to let everyone I can, know that Sears will take every opportunity they can to back out of doing the right thing no matter how much or little you spend.